From ordering lockouts to scheduling Christmas Day games to determining who has power and who doesn’t, nothing of consequence in the NBA ever happens without David Stern calling the shots. On that last front, the league’s 30 general managers lost a good deal of power this past week when the NBA announced that a new “competition committee” that includes select owners, GMs and coaches will decide all future rules changes, along with other potential modifications to the game...

Previously, and for what seems like the last 25 years, rules changes were the exclusive domain of the league’s general managers. Owners and coaches were not a part of the process. Unless the GMs wanted to make a change, it never got to a vote. But in recent years, that system had not been working for Stern. So he ordered the change. This was a commissioner-driven production, even though the league made it a point to announce that its owners called for the change. According to ownership sources, they did, but only after Stern first went to them and told them he wanted a new, smaller committee that would implement the changes he is seeking before he retires. He has told friends he’s probably going to step down after two more seasons.

I like this move, actually. I've always found GMs to be the most reluctant of the three stakeholders to make a move. I trust the Coaches, and while the owners are likely to also vote with dollar signs in mind, that might not always be a bad thing in terms of the on-court product.

The article says that Stern wants to allow the international rules for goaltending and to penalize floppers. Well, if you want more scoring, that rule would seemingly decrease scoring because the defender can swat the ball anytime it's on the rim or simply grab it for a rebound.

And, if he penalizes floppers, he's going to be penalizing the biggest stars in the game, i.e. Lebron, Griffin, Paul. It's not just international players that do it. I don't see either rule change happening.